Prominent journalist and Editor Pakistan Today, Arif Nizami, has refuted fake news attributing certain statements regarding the controversy between Ayesha Gulalai and Imran Khan to him.
Persons and activists belonging to certain political parties, especially those on social media, had grasped at the opportunity to quote the newspaper editor. They claimed he had ‘revealed’ on a television show that Ayesha Gulalai had taken Rs 50 crore in exchange for ‘creating drama’ to derail the Pakistan Tehrik i Insaaf. They further insinuated this payment had been made by the PML-N.
However, this was by no means true as can be seen in the footage of the TV show, where Mr Nizami is shown to be quoting PTI member Andaleeb Abbas, who said this to him when they met at the tv station’s studio. The video of Mr Nizami being shared and cited on social media has been taken grossly out of context, with those capitalising on his words cutting out significant amounts of footage from both before and after the 18 seconds they are pushing.
The result has been that an incomplete statement has been taken as a statement of revelation rather than the quotation of Andaleeb Abbas that it was in reality.
The full footage can be seen below:
It can clearly be seen that not only did Mr Nizami attribute the statement to someone else, but he also expressed his reservations saying that such could only be possible if the PML-N had “money printing machines.”